| Ntoroko clashes | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of Allied Democratic Forces insurgency | |||||||
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
 Uganda |  Allied Democratic Forces | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
| Dick Olum Saul Nabimanya [1] | Unknown | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
| Unknown | ~40 | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| 1 killed 2 injured | 26 killed 22 captured | ||||||
| 3 civilians killed 8,000 people displaced | |||||||
On 13 December 2022, fighting broke out between the Uganda People's Defence Force and the Allied Democratic Forces in Ntoroko District, in western Uganda.
In the 1990s, the Islamist group Allied Democratic Forces formed in southern Uganda, and quickly took hold in eastern Congo and the dense rainforests there, launching attacks on civilians and Congolese forces. However, the group has made several incursions into the Ugandan border in the late 2010s and early 2020s, as their influence grew in the Congo. [2] In late 2021, the Ugandan Army dispatched to eastern Congo to aid the Congolese and Rwandan militaries in relieving the Kivu and Ituri conflicts. [2] Incursions by the ADF into Uganda, however, occasionally happened, along with attacks in the Ugandan capital of Kampala. [3]
Civilians in Bweramule sub-county, in Ntoroko, first spotted ADF militants on 13 December. [4] Speaking to the Ugandan military, they stated around 20-40 militants crossed the Semuliki river into the district. [5] The fighters were armed with around 15-20 guns. [4] Captured ADF fighters stated that once they crossed into Ntoroko, the ADF contingent was split into several groups. [6] Meanwhile, the Ugandan military's 8th Mountain Battalion, stationed in the area, responded to the incursion. [4] The ADF attacked civilians in Bweramule, killing three people. [7] In the ensuing clashes between Ugandan forces and the ADF, seventeen ADF fighters were killed and thirteen were captured, mostly child soldiers. [4] The commander of the Ugandan Mountain Division, Dick Olum, stated the other ten fighters likely drowned in the Semuliki river when crossing back. [4] In the clashes, one Ugandan soldier was killed, and two were injured. [6]
By 14 December, civilians sheltering in the local public school were able to return home. [4] Around 8,000 people were displaced in total from the attacks, 7,000 of which from Bweramule sub-county, and 1,000 combined from Butungama sub-county and Kibuuku town. [6] On 25 December, seven more ADF fighters that were hiding were caught by civilians and military forces. All fighters were between the ages of 12 and 14. [6]
The Allied Democratic Forces is an Islamist rebel group in Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). It considered a terrorist organisation by the Ugandan government and the United States. It was originally based in western Uganda but has expanded into the neighbouring DRC. Most Ugandan ADF fighters are Muslims from the Baganda and Basoga ethnic groups.
Bundibugyo District is a district in the Western Region of Uganda, bordering the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). The town of Bundibugyo is where both the district headquarters and the Bwamba Kingdom seat are located. Before July 2010, the districts of Ntoroko and Bundibugyo were one. These districts are the only two in Uganda that lie west of the Rwenzori mountains. Bundibugyo was first named Semuliki district on separating it from the Greator Kabarole district alongside Rwenzori district (Kasese) in 1974.
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The Allied Democratic Forces insurgency is an ongoing conflict waged by the Allied Democratic Forces in Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, against the governments of those two countries and the MONUSCO. The insurgency began in 1996, intensifying in 2013, resulting in hundreds of deaths. The ADF is known to currently control a number of hidden camps which are home to about 2,000 people; in these camps, the ADF operates as a proto-state with "an internal security service, a prison, health clinics, and an orphanage" as well as schools for boys and girls.
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The 2017 Semuliki attack was an attack carried out by elements of the Allied Democratic Forces on a United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO) operating base in the Beni Territory, North Kivu region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo on December 7, 2017. The attack was highly coordinated and resulted in the deaths of fifteen U.N. peacekeeping personnel and wounds to 53 others making it the deadliest incident for the U.N. since the deaths of twenty-four Pakistani peacekeepers in an ambush in Somalia in 1993. The attack was among many of the latest flare-ups in violence in the North Kivu region which borders Uganda and Rwanda and one of the ADF's deadliest attacks in recent history. U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres labeled the attack, "the worst attack on UN peacekeepers in the organization's recent history."
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On December 31, 2020, jihadist militants from the Islamic State affiliate Allied Democratic Forces attacked the village of Tingwe, North Kivu, Democratic Republic of the Congo, killing at least thirty people. Several other civilians were kidnapped as well.
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